Father& Son hawking games...

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Pat Hawkins and his son Brian open their new Hawk's video games store in Soldotna.

Pat Hawkins and his son Brian open their new Hawk's video games store in Soldotna.

A new video game store is now open in Soldotna to serve gamers of all ages on the Kenai Peninsula. Hawks Games, located in the U-Haul mall on the Sterling Highway, is a partnership between Pat Hawkins and his son Brian. Pat, who has worked primarily in the grocery retail business on the Peninsula, is excited about their new business, "This is the first business that I've owned, I mean we've owned, and this is a big opportunity for us and will meet a unique need for people here on the Kenai Peninsula. We're looking forward to having a lot of fun with this business," said senior partner Pat Hawkins. Pat credits his son and partner Brian with coming up with the idea of a full service video game store where people are welcome to try out, rent or buy the latest games as well as trade in their old games for new ones, "It's really a whole new concept or dimension to the video game industry, because we will take your old games and give you credits toward new ones. People have never had that resource before to be able to upgrade their old systems to new ones," explained Pat.

Brian Hawkins has been a gamer all his life and says he is very comfortable working with his Dad, "We work real well together. I started working for Dad when I was about eight or nine pricing candy bars when he use to run the old Foodland store in Soldotna, but I've had this idea for a couple of years and then a few months ago I approached Dad and he saw a real need here on the Peninsula to give customers an option that they've never had before. It's really going to be great to have a store with my Dad where my hobby is my business and I can share my experience and love for games with our customers," said Brian.

Hawkins believes he can bridge the "generation game gap" with his new store by offering his experience and council to new gamers of all ages, "Games are becoming more adult orientated and not just designed to appeal to kids anymore, there is a greater variety of games with new appeal to this generation that has been playing games for twenty years as well as adults getting started for the first time. There are great opportunities today for adults to get involved with their kids in playing video games," added Brian.

The new Hawks Games store also offers customers a chance to preview a game before buying it, "We have a high definition large screen TV here where people can demo games and get excited about it before they take it home. We're offering customer service here in a big way, we'll take preorders on games that are yet to be released nationally and we guarantee that we'll have the latest games here in the store competitively priced with the big box stores here and in Anchorage, so people can get everything and service in one place," said Hawkins.